Shared-Aperture Phased Array Grounding for Grating Lobe Suppression
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional wireless devices with multiple phased array antennas have separate printed circuit boards for each antenna, leading to increased size and cost due to multiple apertures, and face challenges with grating lobes in radiation patterns when antenna elements are spaced too far apart, causing interference and violating regulatory masks.
Innovation Solution
The use of parasitic antenna elements in the lower frequency lattice to reduce grating lobe effects while maintaining good antenna performance, without adding active components, and implementing dual linearly polarized elements to mitigate performance degradation and separate high and low bands into orthogonal components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If antenna elements are spaced far apart to avoid overlap, then manufacturing and assembly are easier, but grating lobes appear in radiation patterns causing interference and regulatory violations
Solution Approach 1:
A ground plane is introduced as an intermediary structure between the antenna elements and the substrate. This ground plane serves as a mediator that controls electromagnetic field distribution, suppresses grating lobes, and enables closer element spacing without causing interference issues. The ground plane acts as the intermediate layer that resolves the conflict between element spacing and grating lobe suppression.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the electrical parameters of the antenna system by introducing a ground plane with specific impedance characteristics. This parameter change allows the antenna elements to be spaced closer together (changing the physical parameter of element spacing) while maintaining proper radiation patterns by controlling the electromagnetic environment through the ground plane's electrical properties.
2Ease of manufacture
If multiple separate printed circuit boards are used for each antenna, then each antenna can be independently designed and manufactured, but device size and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple antenna systems are merged onto a single printed circuit board by using separate ground planes for each antenna system. This combining approach reduces the overall device size and eliminates the need for multiple separate PCB assemblies, while still allowing independent design and manufacturing of each antenna system through their isolated ground planes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent resolves the space conflict by transitioning to a multi-layer dimensional structure. Multiple antenna systems are stacked in different layers (dimensions) of the same PCB, with each antenna having its own ground plane in a specific layer. This vertical stacking in another dimension allows compact integration while maintaining independent antenna performance.
3Manufacturing precision
If parasitic antenna elements are added to reduce grating lobes, then radiation pattern quality improves, but device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of adding complex parasitic antenna elements, the patent extracts and utilizes the ground plane structure already present in the antenna system. The ground plane is reconfigured or optimized to perform the function of grating lobe suppression that would otherwise require additional parasitic elements, thereby simplifying the overall device structure while maintaining radiation pattern quality.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution achieves significant suppression of grating lobes and maintains antenna efficiency, reducing the number of active components and complexity, thus lowering cost and power consumption, while ensuring compliance with regulatory patterns and minimizing interference.
Implementation Method 1
An element of the first phased array antenna and a parasitic element are separated by the second distance
Implementation Method 2
dual linearly polarized elements to mitigate performance degradation and separate high and low bands into orthogonal components
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies directed to overlaid shared aperture array with improved total efficiency are described. One RF structure includes a first antenna with a first set of antenna elements disposed on a first plane of a support structure and a second antenna with a second set of antenna elements disposed on a second plane of the support structure. A set of parasitic antenna elements are disposed on the first plane. Two adjacent antenna elements, including one from the first plurality of antenna elements and another one from the plurality of parasitic antenna elements, are separated by the second distance.